Excel Charts vs PivotCharts | Comparison | Which is Best?

Posted on: 04/08/2022

Which is best in Excel? Classic CHARTS or PIVOTCHARTS? I will show you both ways of creating charts in Excel. I demonstrate step by step what's involved in each method, which one is the most flexible and powerful, and which one I prefer.

We take a look at creating some classic charts (in Excel, the shortcut is ALT + F1) using a date-based cell range, and I show you how to customize the appearance to skip dates without data.

The second method, using PivotCharts, is also demonstrated in this tutorial. We look at how easy it is to create a PivotTable and then a PivotChart from it and obtain a powerful and flexible chart with a few clicks.

YouTube Video

Video Chapters / Bookmarks

00:00 Introduction
00:17 Creating a classic chart
02:10 Creating a PivotChart
03:15 Closing remarks

Keyboard shortcuts to create a chart

F11 - Create a chart on a separate worksheet
ATL + F1 - create a chart on the current worksheet

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Chris Menard

Chris Menard is a Microsoft Trainer (MCT) and works as a full-time Trainer at BakerHostetler - one of the largest law firms in the US. Chris runs a YouTube channel with 900+ technology videos that cover various tools such as Excel, Word, Zoom, Teams, Gmail, Copilot, Google Calendar, and Outlook. To date, the channel has helped over 20 million viewers. Menard also does 2 to 3 public speaking events yearly, presenting at the Administrative Professional Conference (APC), the EA Ignite Conference, the University of Georgia, and CPA conferences. You can connect with him on LinkedIn at https://chrismenardtraining.com/linkedin or watch his videos on YouTube at https://chrismenardtraining.com/youtube.